Lesson #13 -Tagging and Del.icio.us

After my tour of social bookmarking, Del.icio.us, and some related articles, I am somewhat overwhelmed. I have read that the whole point of social bookmarking is to take the overwhelm out of the internet by allowing you to filter, sort, tag and "flatten out" your old style filing heirarchy that's making it so hard to find things. The example of a refrigerator was used. ("Flattening" this heirarchical system is like being able to tell your refrigerator to put all the dairy up front, or everything with onions in it, or anything over 7 days old, on demand.) And to extend the metaphor, since it is "social", anyone opening my refrigerator could do the same.



The reading provided on the "PLCMCL2 favorites" Del.icio.us account has given me many things to consider. Social connectivity by interest, or product, or behavior pattern, is interesting but problematic, expecially in an information culture like a library. Do people want to be identified by a “personal information field” made up of preferences, as tracked by their digital devices? How might this compromise the idea of freedom of information, inquiry, or thought?

The same ability of Amazon or the library to “understand our preferences” and of Live Journal to start running ads derived from words I may write about (which it does) reminds one of “profiling”, as the term is used in a legal sense or “tracking” as applied to school children, both considered undesirable practices.

I read a fascinating article, the “Social Machines” by Wade Roush, from a link of PLCMCL2 favorites: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/14664/ The writer expresses worry that the technology be so invisible that people forget they are using it, or that it is a path of least resistance in a world that is really more difficult than that. It is interesting to observe the ways in which people find meaning in connecting with each other, however. I admire this, and am curious about it. Look at http://allconsuming.net/ which is a social networking site for sharing not just books, music, and movies but also food or products. There are many others to explore.

After some thought and some reading, I have created a Del.icio.us account, but have not decided yet how to use it. The learning - and the questions - continue.